Red Eye Blue Eye
by Hammi.the.Danger.Child
Summary: Years have passed since Naruto left his village in ruins. One day he returns to pass through and see how the land has changed. What is it waiting for? This melancholic wind haunts him....
1. Chapter 1

He was out of water.

Even as he lifted the canteen to his parched lips, craned his head back as far as it would bend, squeezing the canteen as hard as he could, he knew it was no use. He must have run dry hours ago. He pulled his scarf back over his hair, it had fallen off when he had leaned his head back. Every part of him, head to toe, was covered in sandy, dull colors and oceans of material. The only exposed skin on his body was now his eyes, as he pulled the scarf back up over his nose when he discovered the water was gone. They were blue, the only bright color on him. Wind clutched at him, blowing sand into his wide eyes and he winced, blinking fast.

Where was the nearest village? Sunagakure, maybe… but, no, he was too deep in the desert. It would be faster to go to Konoha. Even now, his pulse skipped a beat, even thinking the name. How many years had it been…? One? Five? Ten? He hadn't seen civilization in over a month, hadn't asked for the date in… well, so long ago he had no clue when it was.

"Konoha…." He whispered to himself. His cracked voice, parched with thirst, echoed of longing, remorse, and remembrance. Did it still look the same?

_It doesn't make sense to go all the way to Konoha_, a deep, gravelly voice sounded throughout his mind, reverberating through his chest but not making a sound. _Get to a river somewhere, get water there._

But he shook his head at the voice. _I'll have to go to the forest to find a river, and if I'm already there, I might as well go see the village. Not for long, stay one night, two at most, then leave. I won't forget about our mission, don't you worry about that. _

_Hmph._ The gravelly voice seemed disgruntled, but did not press further.

The wind and heat and sand buffeted him and his knees shook. He rather wished he had some water.

**A/N ah, my short stories never seem to have purpose at the beginning, do they? Or, rather, their sense of purpose is rarely revealed… I'll write an actual story, soon, don't worry. **


	2. Chapter 2

_The gates are still green_, he noted, stopping at the edge of the forest, looking at the old village entrance. His outfit was the same, clothes covering him head to foot, leaving just his sky blue eyes exposed. They looked worn and sad, but at the same time fierce and mutinous.

_Did you really expect that to change?_ The gravelly voice asked.

… _No._

The young man quenched his nostalgia and walked forward, through the gates.

"Excuse me," he turned and saw a young man and woman blinking at him from behind the Konohagakure sign-in booth. "You gotta get a pass to come in here. Security tightened a few years back, man," the male leaf shinobi said in a bored voice.

_Familiar face?_ The gravelly voice asked as the outsider stiffened, his pulse quickening slightly.

_Old- subordinate, you could say,_ he replied silently, swallowing and stepping forward. He kept his eyes down so that Konohamaru would not see the familiarity in them. How many years had he been gone? The boy who had once followed him around like a puppy was now a young man, in his early twenties at least. To be honest, he hardly recognized him, but a familiar pair of goggles now worn on his left arm had given him away. The woman to his right also wore the goggles on her arm, her long hair almost hid her face, but he wondered if she could possibly be Moegi.

_How old am I?_ he wondered silently. The gravelly voice had no reply.

With a steady hand, he took the pen and signed his name. Not his name. He hadn't used his real name in… must have been years. His familiar pen name would have to do.

Konohamaru took the paper from him and scanned it suspiciously. Moegi looked over his shoulder and copied the name onto a tag, which she handed to the outsider. "Don't cause any trouble, okay?" her words were not challenging, she looked to have grown into a kind woman.

"Thank you," he said, quietly, glancing up just for a brief moment to take the name tag. It was a long enough glance for Konohamaru to stiffen, staring at the 'stranger' with intense dark eyes.

"Nar-" Konohamaru burst out, then seemed to catch himself and whispered the last part with confusion. "uto…?" but the stranger had already turned away and did not respond to the name he had abandoned years and years ago.

"Konohamaru," Moegi's voice was sharper now, though quieter, more casual with her childhood friend. "What's wrong with you? That guy disappeared years ago!"

"Right..." came the disappointed reply.

Behind his scarf, the stranger's lips twitched in a knowing smile.

_You were almost caught,_ the gravelly voice said as the man unpinned the name tag from his chest and tossed it away, not wanting anyone to mark him as an outsider.

_Shut up, I know, I know, _he grumbled. _Let's just get some food. It's a big village, we probably won't see anyone else. _The man had refilled his canteen at a river just outside of the village.

The voice chuckled in a low, hoarse voice. _You're being careless, Naruto. _

Naruto tugged the scarf hiding his hair down, shadowing his eyes further. _Don't call me that_, he muttered silently. _It'll make me respond to that name. _It wasn't his name any more. He had thrown it away, like he had that name tag. Because it marked him, shadowed his whereabouts. That name would alert others to where he was, and, to be honest, those were all people he didn't want to find him.

**A/N awhh, Konohamaru and Moegi. I imagined that they would start wearing goggles on their arms as soon as Naruto left the village, as a kind of memorial to him- since they wore goggles when they were little as a pledge of allegiance to him. **


	3. Chapter 3

The streets were worn and covered in people. They carried on like a swift river tide, ignoring Naruto. He wondered if he stopped in the middle of the street if people would stop and glance at him. But he didn't want them to, and even being in the midst of so many people was dangerous, so he ducked into a side street.

Automatically, his eyes drifted upwards, wanting to see that cliff face with the faces carved on it. He wanted to see the new face, or faces, etched into it.

_Do you really want to? _The gravelly voice asked. _Do you really want to know who replaced you?_

Naruto diverted his gaze all the way to the first hokage's, so far to the left that he could not even see his own face in the wall, even with his peripheral vision. He hastily looked down.

_It's strange,_ he confessed, walking on through the side streets. _I worked my whole life, trying to be on that wall. Trying to be hokage! But, when the time came, I had absolutely no qualms in throwing away my achieved dream. Even now, I think back to when I was hokage and am indifferent. What a waste. _

The gravelly voice was silent, unimpressed by Naruto's ponderings.

After all, that had been years ago. It was unimportant now. Naruto had been replaced years ago, perhaps by somebody he knew. Maybe by someone older than him, maybe by one of his fellow rookie nine, Shikamaru would have done well in the job. And because he had a sinking feeling that he would know who had replaced him, Naruto could not bring himself to look at the new face. He just did not want to know.

_Didn't you mention something about a ramen shop in this village?_

Naruto blinked and bypassed the Ichiraku Ramen Shop without glancing at it. _Forget it, I lost my appetite for ramen somewhere along the road, _he muttered, heading towards the village barbeque-and-bar.

**A/N I think I need an orange light for that abrupt stop. Poor people at Ichiraku Ramen Shop, I'm surprised they didn't go out of business, what with Naruto not eating there, like, every other meal. **


	4. Chapter 4

"Haha, you wanna know why this is so funny?"

"…."

"You wanna know? Because _your_ wife makes you_ diet_! Hahaha!"

"…."

"I have heard of women going on crazy diets, I know my woman is on one right now, but she's never tried to drag me down with her, haha!"

"…. Well, maybe you _should_ go on a diet."

"… what was that, Shikamaru?"

"You heard me."

"I AM NOT FAT!"

A familiar squabble could easily be heard from where Naruto sipped a glass of water and waited for his food to arrive. Nara Shikamaru. Akimichi Chouji. It seemed those two would never change- well, they had never discussed _wives_ back then, but most of it was the same material. He tensed when a man was punched, knocking right into Naruto's table, and he instinctively drew his scarf up higher on his face. It was unnecessary- Shikamaru, looking about the same, despite obviously being older, hardly glanced at Naruto as he hastily apologized and then tried to calm Chouji down.

Even as the two settled into a more friendly banter, Naruto kept an ear open, selfishly curious as to how life was without him in it.

"… if I didn't know she'd find out, I'd ignore this stupid diet thing. But if she _did_ find out, which she always does, I'd pay for it later. How troublesome."

"Why does she want to diet, anyways?"

"Lose baby fat or something? I dunno, women have some complex, after they give birth they think they're _soo_ fat or something. I think she's fine."

"It's healthy to be chubby."

For a while, they discussed the curious abnormalities of women. Naruto didn't really care for this topic, although he was interested in hearing about who his old friends had ended up marrying. _What a strange couple_, he laughed to himself, hiding his smirk behind his scarf. Whenever he lifted the water to drink, he had to make sure his scarf still covered the sides of his face, where his trademark whiskers would surely give him away if seen.

_I'm starving!_ The gravelly voice snarled in a monstrous voice when the meat had arrived.

_Me too. _"Itadakimasu," he whispered habitually, not loud enough for anyone to hear or recognize his voice. The meat was scrumptious, it sang of flavor and he almost groaned from the wonder of it. Most of the time Naruto simply didn't eat save for what he found on the road. He kept some dried meats and such with him, but he rarely was hungry any more. It had been ages since he had tasted real food, everything was twenty times better this way.

"Anyway, Shikamaru, when's your next mission? I wanted to see if you could help me with something in a week or so."

"A week? I think I have patrol duty all next week from eleven to ten."

"So before then. Jeez, are you ever not working? Ever since joining ANBU I hardly get to see you- the same goes for the rest who joined. I'm happy being a regular jonin."

"Teaching those idiotic genin is hardly being a 'regular' jonin. I envy your patience, kids are way too troublesome for me. And don't talk so loudly about my career, idiot, you never know who's listening."

Naruto felt eyes on him and didn't look up. After a moment, they continued talking, in more hushed voices.

"I heard Hinata was going to be leaving her ANBU squad soon."

"Yeah, she wants to take some time off and pick up a genin squad of her own. Don't know how she'll manage leading a squad of brats, she's so shy…." Shikamaru sounded tired.

"She's gotten a lot more confident than she was when she was younger, though."

"Yeah, thanks to Naruto."

Naruto hadn't expected his own name to pop up so suddenly. He felt a faint twinge of recognition, but it had been so long since he had responded to that name, it was more like hearing a familiar friend's rather than his own. He stared at his empty plate, wanting more.

"Speaking of which, has Sakura rejoined ANBU yet?"

"Stupid, she's just had a baby. Of course not!"

_Sakura had a baby?_ After perking up at the name, Naruto felt something strange, like disappointment, run down his spine.

_Still attached? _

_Not at all. _Naruto stood up suddenly, dropping an unnecessary amount of cash onto the table. _I'm more surprised that she's still alive. I thought I'd killed her back then._

_Keep acting tough, kiddo._

Naruto brushed past Shikamaru and Chouji. He half wished they would call out to him, but was glad they did not. Out the doors and into the fresh air. His clothes, which generally protected him from the sand and wind of the desert, were hot in the baking sun and lack of wind.

_I'm not a kid anymore, stupid fox. _He growled, his temper flashing, his eyes glinting red. _I really, honestly, could care less. I stopped caring when I left this village. _

_I told you we shouldn't have come here._

_Don't be ridiculous._ Naruto sniffed, trying to decide where to head to next._ This is good for me, it will make me stronger._

_Keep telling yourself that._

**A/N lol, Shikamaru and Chouji. Their team has never been my favorite (W00T TEAM 8 ALL THE WAY) but they're the only two who would be found in a barbeque. And I know I made it sound like Shikamaru married Ino, but if you think about it, any woman he married would force him to go on a diet, he loves them tough and commanding. I avoided mentioning any pairings anywhere to save fangirl squabbles. **


	5. Chapter 5

_I wonder if I still own that apartment?_

_They'll have sold it by now._

_I suppose…._

_And if they haven't sold it, they're hoping you're stupid enough to sniff it out if ever you return, so they're watching it closely._

_It was just a suggestion._

_A stupid one._

Battling with irritation for the demon within him and the desire to find a place to stay, Naruto stopped for a second. He retracted his claws. He blinked his scarlet eyes and let them return to their normal blue. Took a deep breath. Was calm once more.

_There's a hotel just down the road, then._

He moved quietly down the streets and into the lodging, swiftly and quietly giving his pen name to the receptionist, who, smiling sweetly, passed him a key in return for his money. Once in the room, he threw off his clothes, basking in the feel of cool air conditioning on his sweating skin. The black tattoo on his abdomen burned particularly hot.

Naruto showered and thought of the pros and cons of exploring outdoors, visiting old haunting and such.

On one hand, it would be interesting to see how the land had grown. It would be beneficial if he ever needed to know the recent geography of the land. And it would be boring to lay around the apartment until he felt like eating dinner. Napping wasn't really an appealing option right now.

On the other hand, it would risk his exposure. There was no real reason for him to be out and about in this village he had once called home, and if anybody recognized him, it would be the end. They would pursue him endlessly, whether with pleas to return or hate and jeers for death.

Truth be told, it would be absolutely, unnecessarily stupid for him to stick his nose out his door. But since when did Naruto listen to reason? He pulled on clothes, deciding to wear a lot less this time. He settled for a large, but light, over coat, pants that ended just below his knees, fishnet shirt, and a face mask, similar to his old sensei's. Realizing his blonde hair would also attract attention, Naruto pulled the hood of his overcoat up over his hair to hide it. He kept the rest of his possessions in his back pack, which he kept with him in case he needed to make a speedy getaway.

_Idiot._ The gravelly voice of the Kyuubi spoke, but Naruto ignored him.

He smiled under his mask and stepped outside.

**A/N This chapter had very little purpose, I just wanted to get some stuff cleared up. **


	6. Chapter 6

_The village has changed after all._

_Really?_ The Kyuubi was surprised. _How so?_

_I don't know. It's like… everybody's holding their breath. Everybody is waiting for something._

_For what?_

_I don't know. _Even as Naruto decided that, a group of laughing children ran by, as if to prove him wrong. No, he didn't deny the fact that there were happy children. There were still gossiping old ladies in the corners of hubs, still relaxing ninjas discussing wives and their colleagues, still genin running about catching cats. It was a relaxed setting on the outside. But if one were to stop and really take in the land, in the way that a hokage might, they would understand the difference.

Beneath the hot sun was a subtle, melancholic wind; behind the older ninjas' joking was a distant, hard gleam in their eyes; beyond the height of the towers the birds sang a sad tune. Naruto closed his eyes, drinking in this change, trying to find the source. He opened his eyes and saw a terrifying scene of stanching blood and tortured chaos; the bird choked mid-song and fell bleeding to the earth. Then his vision cleared and all was bright again.

_This is how you left your village. _The gravelly voice murmured.

_This is what they made their village,_ Naruto disagreed, awed by the hollowness of his old home. _I had nothing to do with it._

"Sasuke, what are you up to right now?"

"Ng!" Naruto hastily ducked into the shadow of a doorway, clutching his head as electricity ran through him. With a shudder his eyes flashed red and his teeth grew into fangs. _Sasuke_! That was one name that would always make him shudder with hostility and energy. Nobody else made his temper flare like this.

_Calm down,_ he told himself, desperate not to give himself away.

"I was heading home…" came the dark, quiet voice, and Naruto shivered, feeling more repressed energy bubbling under his skin. The Kyuubi watched him with cold eyes- he knew if he lost control, the fox would spring up and try to claim his freedom. No matter how close the two had bonded on their years of solitude together, friendship would always be blurred when it came to regaining the ability to move for yourself. Luckily, staying in this state of frenzy was an efficient way to use up enough chakra so as not to release tails of chakra, so he would not likely lose control unless on the verge of death, which had happened about three times in the years since he had left the village. He reverted his attention to the two in the street.

"Oh, well, come with me, then," that voice was familiar as well. Naruto pictured the friendly, while masked, face of his old sensei, Hatake Kakashi.

"Why?"

"Kiba wants me to meet him- something urgent. You thinking what I'm thinking?"

Naruto could almost hear Sasuke tense, he could almost hear the muscles in his hand clench as he looked around. Even though, hidden in the doorway, Naruto could not see Sasuke, he knew exactly what his best friend was doing.

"That one…?" Sasuke muttered, almost too quietly for Naruto to hear.

"….Maybe…. Let's go find out…." A rush of air- the two had darted away.

_What was that about?_ He wondered.

_Who cares. It's nearing sunset, we should get back to the hotel. Or better yet, leave immediately and slip back into the shadows. _

… _It might be better to leave. I have a bad feeling about that…_ Naruto pulled his hood down further, shadowing his face. _If the village is about to be in a battle of some kind, I don't want to be caught in the middle of it. _

_No playing the hero today?_ The Kyuubi asked, mildly surprised.

Naruto grinned as he regained his cool completely and stepped back out into the sunlight, walking now with a purpose, heading for the exit. He did feel some hinting of desire to stick around, protect his old village if it needed help. But if he did that, they would find him, and if he did that, he might not be able to leave again. He had to cut ties with this place. He had to. _Not anymore,_ he said, his blue eyes hardening. _I'll leave playing the hero up to Sasuke. _

**A/N Holy cats, it's the Sauce King! I love the Sauce when he's a good boy. When he's evil he's creepy and faggish :P**


	7. Chapter 7

Naruto was walking alongside water, at a place where, many, many years ago, Kakashi had fought Uchiha Itachi alongside Kurenai and Asuma-sensei. It seemed Kakashi was drawn to this place, in fact. As Naruto crouched down, picking a rock out of his shoe, a breath of wind told him that somebody had appeared behind him, and he felt a cool, sharp blade being pressed against his neck.

It took only a heartbeat for Naruto to look up and vanish, reappearing behind Kakashi-sensei and pressing his own blade against his sensei's neck. He took his fore and middle finger of his left hand and pressed them in a hollow on Kakashi's throat, searching for a pulse. He found it.

"Well, well, Naruto," Kakashi slowly straightened and Naruto let him, holding both of his hands in place. "You've gotten slick."

"Thanks," Naruto muttered. "As for you, _sensei_, where does this water clone of yours report to when it's gone? Who are you planning to tell that I'm here?"

Kakashi's pulse strengthened slightly, nervously. "Disappointing," he said at last. "You come back to the village after all these years, simply to pass through and not be seen?"

"I needed food," Naruto said coldly, which wasn't exactly a lie, but certainly wasn't the truth. In all honesty, he had only gone through the village to see what had become of it after he had left it in ruins. "Okay, so who's looking for me; you, Kiba, and Sasuke? Is that it?"

_How did you-?_ Naruto could almost hear Kakashi's thoughts through his blood rhythm. "I'm not psychic, yet," The blonde answered his unspoken question with a dark laugh. "I heard you and Sasuke talking in the village earlier. I figured that's what Kiba wanted to talk about- which I should have figured out earlier, his sense of smell is annoyingly sharp…."

Kakashi laughed. "Very good, deductive reasoning, Naruto-kun."

The younger man scoffed. "I'm not your apprentice anymore, Kakashi."

"Right. You're the Hokage, now," Kakashi said agreeably.

"No!" Naruto dug his fingers into Kakashi's throat harder than necessary. "I'm not your hokage anymore, okay? I'm just a stranger passing through this village!"

"Everyone feels confident that when you finish whatever it is you're doing, you'll come back here," Kakashi said after a moment.

Naruto growled in frustration, his eyes flashing red and his claws pinching at Kakashi's throat. "Why can't you understand? I left this place in ruins! I have killed so many innocent people! I've been gone for how many years, now! I am _nobody's_ hokage, and I'm definitely not the Leaf Village's, who I left to rot, if you'll remember. I'm not the innocent, stupid child who lead this place believing in false tales like _peace_ and_ love_, so you can forget about me returning to you people once I'm finished with my travelling!"

Silence fell like leaves, which dropped in response to Naruto's crackling chakra. Finally the older man spoke. "When Sasuke returns to the village, Naruto leaves, when Naruto returns to the village, will Sakura leave? Team seven is definitely the most broken of the rookie squads…. Did you know Sakura-chan got married recently?" He was mentioning Sakura as if to point out that Naruto had failed to kill her all those years ago, something Naruto had known very well but pretended not to have.

Naruto calmed down and retracted his claws from Kakashi's throat. "Yeah, I heard," he said, sounding tired now. A thought suddenly struck him. "What will everybody do if they find me?"

"Tie you down, bring you back to the village," Kakashi sounded amused.

"Got it," Naruto rolled his eyes. "So I _am_ like the new Sasuke."

"Unlike Sasuke, we think whatever it is you're doing now is for a good cause," Kakashi replied delicately. "We know you didn't leave for power, and we know you didn't leave for vengeance, and we have enough faith in you as our hokage to have our best interests in mind. When we bring you back to the village, we're going to ask how we can help, you know."

He was right, they, the village, were right. What Naruto was doing was for the sake of anybody he had ever loved, it was dangerous, he had needed to sacrifice his emotions and kill many innocent people, and it was something he needed to do alone. But he didn't care, suffice that it protected what he had left behind. He had never told anybody other than the Kyuubi that, however, because if anybody knew that his intentions were not evil, they would try to help him, try to stop him, interfere in some form or fashion, and everything would be lost. That was why he had purposely left his village in a time when they were ruined and bloody. But they had not been tricked, Kakashi said, and they were going to do exactly what he didn't want them to try to do: help.

Naruto shook his head disbelievingly. "Stop waiting for me to come back, trust in your new hokage for that; which one are you on now, the seventh? Eighth?"

"Sixth," Kakashi corrected quietly, and Naruto blinked, confused. He had been the sixth. "Haven't you even glanced at those monuments since you got here?"

Curious, rejecting all cautions in his mind, Naruto turned his head to look at the giant stone heads towering over the village. His eyes moved across them until they found his own face, then they moved to where the next hokage spot would be filled.

"You didn't- you're kidding," he gaped. A crash of water told him that he had squeezed Kakashi's throat too hard, but he didn't care. Next to his face was… nothing. "I'm still hokage…?"

A rush of confusion swarmed over him. Memories surrounded him, plaguing him with smiling faces, warm summer love, faithful heart bonds, lives linked together like chains, all the pain, love, and happiness writhing around in a sea of nostalgia. Naruto's knees shook at the energy pounding through him, his eyes pulsed blood red and his clawed hands shook. Of course. Of course they hadn't forgotten him, just like he could never forget them. It was like the people of this village were a part of him, how had he neglected that fact? The feeling he remembered feeling earlier, the sense that they were waiting… they were waiting for him, their hokage, their leader! Their trust in him was ridiculous, risky, and without intelligent basis, and yet… they still had faith in him.

"Do you see that, Kitsune?" Naruto asked, a smile flashing across his tanned face, his red eyes scanning the face that had not been replaced. "I'm still hokage."

_So now what?_ The Kyuubi sounded irritated. _Are you going to give up our mission and return to your peaceful life here, Naruto?_

Naruto's smile didn't waver, even as he finished fishing the rock out of his shoe and hastened to run down the water, quick so that nobody else would find him. Kakashi had no doubt already informed Kiba and Sasuke of his position, and he didn't want to be caught. _Not a chance,_ his voice bubbled with renewed determination._ And don't call me 'Naruto'. But I'd better hurry up and finish this crappy mission so that I can return to my family already!_

In the sunset light, the shadows cast over Naruto's stone face made him look like he was smiling.

_Wait for me a little longer, _he prayed to his village silently. _Just wait a little longer. _

**A/N awh, Naru-kun is so cute, kind of. Btw, he calls the demon fox Kitsune as a kind of affectionate way of saying 'fox', I guess. Kitsune means fox in Japanese. Notice that I did not say who Sakura was married to, so unless you're a diehard NaruSaku fan, no fangirls should be offended in the making of this story. Oh yeah, and that's the end. So I'll end this fic with a celebratory: **

**THE END!**


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